The alarm sounded abruptly, jolting me awake from my slumber in a similar fashion to how a kick in the guts would...They could be synonymous really, that annoyingly loud alarm and a swift kick to the guts, at least when early-morning-wake-ups are concerned anyway.
Slumber. A word suggesting a restful sleep, but I'm not sure one could call what I just had exactly that. It was more of a series of tossing and turning manoeuvres Cirque du Soleil would be proud to have in their circus-show, all conducted over a six hour period. We'd had heavy rain, thunder and lightning all night as well...A nature-supplied motivation to get the hell out of Adelaide or an inauspicious beginning to our vacation. Either way 4am is not my finest hour, especially after very little sleep, but I rose, got ready and headed to the airport comforted by the fact it was all in aid of our * NZ vacation!*
We flew from Adelaide to Melbourne with Qantas, switched to Air New Zealand and winged our way over the Tasman Sea towards Queenstown, our first destination on this vacation odyssey. Above and below you can see a couple of pictures I snapped on the plane as we were coming into Queenstown. They're not great, I know, however the airplane window was iced up and they're taken with my phone. They'll do though I guess.
On arrival we went through immigration easily, breezing through with our Australian passports, picked up luggage and had a smooth transition through customs which, curiously, means another luggage X-ray or physical inspection, which was quite odd. Heightened security or their standard practice? I know not. Anyway, before long we were driving away in our hire car SUV towards our accommodation which is where I sit writing this. You can see a quick snap I took off the balcony here which is where I was sitting initially, sipping coffee, nibbling cookies and writing on steem...Until it got too cold.
So, vacation has started and we're looking forward to getting after it with passion! Tomorrow we're flying a helicopter and landing at Mt Earnslaw Burn and a glacier which will be cool, literally, so we're hoping for decent weather. It looks like we will have it, but anything is possible here - Weather can change in a flash. I'll be taking loads of pictures of course and hope I get a couple good ones to show you.
Anyway, it's getting on to 8:30pm here, dinner time, so I'd better push on - Lasagne tonight if you're wondering. I hope y'all have had a great weekend.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
